Doctor Who Common Entries Contests

DWCE1: 28 February 2009

Results

Despite keeping the contest open for slightly longer than usual, and the
theoretically easier nature of the competition, we didn't break any records with
DWCE1, but the eventual total of 54 entries is surpassed only by the exceptional
DWRE10. On this occasion, almost all entries were received in the first week, with
no significant last-minute flurry.
The eventual winner is Vegetables, who came second in DWRE12, and who attained a
score of around 4.3 trillion. This is around 17% of the theoretical maximum of 25
trillion. Very close on the winner's heels were Barnaby Salton, HolmesBaker and
Llama Roddy, who all scored more than 2 trillion. No other contestants got past a
trillion, or 4% of the theoretical maximum (and in fact, as the last few entries
came in, each of the top four finishers variously held the top spot).
Congratulations to all of them. Here are their answer slates.
VEGETABLES BARNABY SALTON HOLMESBAKER LLAMA RODDY
0 David Tennant David Tennant David Tennant David Tennant
1 Sarah Jane Smith Sarah Jane Smith Sarah Jane Smith Sarah Jane Smith
2 Death Dalek Dalek Dalek
3 Torchwood Torchwood Torchwood Torchwood
4 45 minute eps More emotions Better SFX Design/cons rm
5 Genesis/Daleks Genesis/Daleks Talons Genesis/Daleks
6 Robert Holmes Robert Holmes Robert Holmes Robert Holmes
7 Graeme Harper Graeme Harper Graeme Harper Graeme Harper
8 Nothing Blake's 7 Doctor Who DVDs Star Trek
9 UNIT dating Canon Canon Canon
To review the scoring:
The scores on the different questions are MULTIPLIED to produce a final score for
each entrant. High score wins.
Here is the complete table of scores. Use a monospaced font to see proper alignment
(this may mean doing 'view source').
As discussed in an earlier post, I have included a "theoretical maximum" and each
entrant's percentage of that fantasy number. I call it a fantasy number because it
does not take into account the effect on the other scores of submitting such an
answer slate. It is simply the highest marks actually obtained for each of the
questions, multiplied together.
RANK SCORE ENTRANT Q0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 RATIO
24,762,993,615,360 MAXIMUM 39 33 19 46 6 26 28 40 9 14
1 4,266,806,544,000 Vegetables 39 33 5 46 5 26 28 40 9 11 17.2306%
2 4,127,165,602,560 Barnaby Salton 39 33 19 46 3 26 28 40 3 14 16.6667%
3 2,821,993,574,400 HolmesBaker 39 33 19 46 5 8 28 40 4 14 11.3960%
4 2,751,443,735,040 Llama Roddy 39 33 19 46 3 26 28 40 2 14 11.1111%
5 816,362,426,880 Blowfly 39 33 19 46 3 8 28 40 9 3 3.2967%
6 644,496,652,800 Phil Evans 39 33 18 46 5 8 14 40 9 3 2.6027%
7 465,469,804,800 Mr Saxon 39 33 18 46 3 26 14 40 5 2 1.8797%
8 442,196,314,560 John Shaw 39 9 19 46 1 26 14 40 9 11 1.7857%
9 334,183,449,600 Paul Sigma 3 33 18 46 5 26 28 40 2 14 1.3495%
10 253,892,620,800 Jonathan Morris 39 9 18 46 5 26 14 40 4 3 1.0253%
11 245,664,619,200 Gordon Ridout 39 33 19 46 5 26 14 40 1 3 0.9921%
12 217,076,428,800 Hotmissile 6 33 19 46 2 8 28 40 5 14 0.8766%
13 179,026,848,000 Froo 39 33 18 46 5 3 28 40 5 2 0.7230%
14 151,708,677,120 Simon Kinnear 39 33 2 46 4 26 28 40 1 11 0.6126%
15 135,344,297,088 ParksPiema 39 33 18 46 3 3 28 4 9 14 0.5466%
16 114,643,488,960 Starfighter Pilot 39 33 19 46 1 26 7 40 1 14 0.4630%
17 110,864,033,280 Ged Sweeney 4 33 19 46 1 26 28 40 3 11 0.4477%
18 98,265,847,680 Iceduck 39 33 19 46 6 26 14 40 1 1 0.3968%
19 69,621,552,000 Ssarl 39 33 5 46 1 3 28 40 5 14 0.2812%
20 65,510,565,120 Daniel McGrath 39 33 19 46 1 26 2 40 2 14 0.2646%
21 62,838,423,648 RichD 39 33 18 46 4 26 7 3 9 3 0.2538%
22 62,062,640,640 Aaron George 39 9 2 46 6 26 28 40 1 11 0.2506%
= 62,062,640,640 DoctorBrownCoat 39 33 3 46 4 26 28 40 1 3 0.2506%
= 62,062,640,640 Lee Johnson 39 33 18 46 1 26 28 40 1 2 0.2506%
25 53,708,054,400 Nsullivan 39 3 18 46 3 3 28 40 5 11 0.2169%
26 41,211,555,840 magicbaboon 39 9 18 4 4 26 28 40 1 14 0.1664%
27 41,130,270,720 Vislor 4 33 18 46 3 8 28 40 1 14 0.1661%
28 40,102,013,952 chriskelk 6 33 18 46 6 26 7 4 4 14 0.1619%
29 39,661,332,480 Tardis77 6 33 18 46 1 8 28 40 9 3 0.1602%
30 31,248,322,560 Mark Welsh 39 9 18 46 1 8 28 40 4 3 0.1262%
31 16,926,174,720 Gervase Fen 39 9 18 46 1 26 14 40 4 1 0.0684%
32 14,430,648,960 Trollface 39 9 19 46 1 3 14 40 2 14 0.0583%
33 13,128,635,520 Wilf 39 33 3 46 3 1 28 40 2 11 0.0530%
34 11,338,367,040 Beyondthevoid 39 33 19 46 2 1 14 40 9 1 0.0458%
35 10,307,606,400 Trevor Gensch 39 2 19 46 5 3 14 40 9 2 0.0416%
36 9,894,044,160 ElectroBoy 39 33 1 4 3 26 28 40 2 11 0.0400%
37 7,161,073,920 Binro_The_Heretic 39 33 18 46 1 2 28 40 1 3 0.0289%
38 5,171,886,720 ijl2269 39 33 2 46 6 26 7 40 1 1 0.0209%
39 3,282,158,880 Andrew Wiggins 3 33 5 46 6 26 7 3 4 11 0.0133%
40 2,974,599,936 NathantheWhovia 6 9 18 46 3 8 28 3 3 11 0.0120%
41 2,320,718,400 Martin Ingham 6 33 5 46 5 26 28 1 1 14 0.0094%
42 2,290,579,200 Will 'OZOO' James 39 2 19 46 5 3 14 40 2 2 0.0093%
43 1,511,782,272 David Ainsworth 39 33 19 46 1 3 28 2 4 2 0.0061%
44 434,004,480 Tlotoxl 39 9 3 46 2 1 14 40 4 2 0.0018%
45 343,586,880 Peter Scandrett 39 1 19 46 3 3 14 40 2 1 0.0014%
46 148,887,648 Regenerator 39 3 19 46 1 26 7 4 2 1 0.0006%
47 30,602,880 Aloysius 6 1 5 46 3 3 28 4 2 11 0.0001%
48 545,376 Peter Morris 4 1 19 46 6 26 1 1 1 1 0.0000%
49 393,120 Hcd199 39 1 2 3 1 3 14 40 1 1 0.0000%
50 133,056 Fortmap 4 33 18 4 1 1 7 2 1 1 0.0000%
51 120,960 Biggles 3 1 2 3 1 3 28 40 1 2 0.0000%
52 7,488 Badgers 39 1 2 4 2 2 2 1 1 3 0.0000%
53 3 Ishbosheth Pfingst 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.0000%
= 3 Ed Rackstraw 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.0000%
Of the 540 answers submitted, 75 were unique (scoring 1 point). Of 54 entrants, 19
managed to avoid scoring even a single 1 and another 18 got away with only one 1.
Thanks to everyone who participated in this, my first Doctor Who common entries contest.
Following a degree of wrangling over both DWRE12 and Peter Morris's contest, not to
mention a ludicrous amount of effort on my part to try and correctly determine whether
or not anyone would have called Catherine de Medici "Queen" for DWRE13, I thought it
was time to ring the changes - hence DWCE1. I was also looking for a way to write
shorter questions. After drafting and redrafting a question about spin-offs for a
potential future DWRE contest and failing to get it under about 100 words, I briefly
considered leaving it as simply "Name a spin off" and just marking every answer correct.
I also considered setting a DWRE contest with every question as terse as that, but then
I realised that if I was going to mark every answer correct anyway (saving myself time
and my entrants grief), I might as well make it a common entries contest instead. I
later decided to include some more open-ended questions as well, and the spin-off
question ended up being far too easy in any case (as we'll see).
Two entries deserve special comment, and they were received within hours of each other.
In rare entries contests, wrong answers are generally concealed under a reassuring
blanket of anonymity, and I sometimes eliminate the poorest scores from the score table
(this also saves space). Here, there are two entries whose nature I can't really conceal
from you even if I wanted to, so I'm going to go ahead and name-and-shame - sorry guys.
One of these "special" entries was from Ed Rackstraw, who offered Trevor Martin as an
actor to play the Doctor, "Smugglers" as a word from a story title and Alan Bromly as a
director among other obscure choices. I can only assume that this was a joke, or - just
possibly - Ed did not notice that this was not a rare entries contest. Since the rules
of the game offer no possible redress in that case, I felt I had no option but to
simply accept his entry and score it. Ed eventually scored 3 points, since two other
entrants put K9 and Company for the spin-off question.
The entry I received immediately prior to that was from the very pseudonymous-sounding
Ishbosheth Pfingst (the email address was equally obscure). Following the "Tegan Jovanka"
question in DWRE13, I discussed - both on the forum and in a private exchange of emails -
the possibility of submitting an all-Tegan, all-the-time answer slate. "Isboseth" took me
at my word and answered "Tegan Jovanka" to every question (even including "Do I win?" at
the end). He/she/it scores 3 since two other entrants also named Tegan as a companion.
The rules clearly forbid multiple entries from the same person, but in this case the
presence or absence of this entry makes next-to-no difference to the rest of the score
table, so I will accept a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Just don't do it again.
Therefore, if we are giving out a wooden spoon this afternoon, I think it should be
Badgers who lines up to collect it, with a truly dismal score of 7,488 - less than one
billionth of the theoretical maximum. Well done, Badgers!
Here is the complete list of answers given. Each list shows correct answers in the
order worst to best (most to least popular).
0. Name an actor who has played The Doctor, other than Tom Baker
39 David Tennant
6 Peter Davison
4 Jon Pertwee
3 William Hartnell
1 Tegan Jovanka
1 Trevor Martin
My rationale here was that if I asked you to name an actor who has played the Doctor,
Tom Baker as the longest-serving, most popular and most iconic performer in the role
would be named by almost everyone, but if I apparently excluded him in the question, then
I might split the vote between him and David Tennant. As it is, nobody gave Tom Baker as
an answer, so I probably would have been more likely to split the vote between current
incumbent and best-remembered if I'd left it unqualified.
Davison and Pertwee also do okay here - entrants figured, I suppose, if Tom's out, then
his predecessor or his successor are required - and Hartnell gets a few mentions as the
first-ever. Troughton, Colin Baker, McCoy, McGann and Eccleston were not named by anyone.
This question reflects a similar one I posed first in DWRE1 (without the anti-Tom clause),
wherein the answers were as follows:
11 Peter Davison
7 Paul McGann
5 Jon Pertwee
5 Tom Baker
5 William Hartnell
4 Sylvester McCoy
4 Patrick Troughton
1 Colin Baker
Then, Davison and McGann were decided to be the most obscure and Eccleston and Tennant were
not named by anybody. The question was recycled in DWRE2 and DWRE3 with rather flatter
distributions both times (especially DWRE2).
1. Name a companion
33 Sarah Jane Smith
9 Rose Tyler
3 Tegan Jovanka
2 Donna Noble
1 Ace
1 Jamie McCrimmon
1 Katarina
1 Leela
1 Peri Brown
1 Steven
1 Zoe Herriot
Sarah Jane romps home here, with only Rose Tyler threatening her position. As one of
the longest-serving companions (18 stories and 60 episodes over two Doctors and nearly
three years) who returned to the programme three times (1983, 2006 and 2008) and then
launched two spin-off series (albeit one exploded on the launch pad), she's a clear
contender for the number one spot. I would have thought that Rose would do a little
better, considering her presence is felt throughout all four full seasons of the new
series so far, and she's had a starring role in around half of the episodes, but it
was no surprise to me to see Sarah first and Rose second. All other answers were given
only once or twice each, except Tegan Jovanka.
2. Give a word used in a Doctor Who story title
19 Dalek(s)
18 The
5 Death
3 Planet
2 Of
2 Terror
2 Time
1 Monster
1 Smugglers
1 Tegan Jovanka
This question also recalls DWRE1. If you care, the most common words in Doctor Who
story titles, with their frequencies are as follows:
Dalek(s) 16
Planet 10 (soon to be 11)
Time 9
Space 7
Death 6
Invasion 6
Doctor(s) 6
Terror 5
Cybermen 4
Evil 4
Warrior(s) 4
But this list, of course, does not include "the" and "of" both of which occur far more
frequently than a busy person like me has time to count. In the end, both "Dalek(s)" and
"The" polled strongly with only "Death" and "Planet" threatening to trouble the scorer.
"Of" was only given twice, I suspect as second-best to "The" in the minds of people who
were looking for a "clever" answer, who were themselves slightly outnumbered by people
who were happy to be obvious.
In keeping with the ruling in DWRE1, I marked "Dalek" and "Daleks" as equivalent answers
(and also "Doctor" and "Doctors").
3. Name a Doctor Who spin-off
46 Torchwood
4 The Sarah Jane Adventures
3 K9 and Company
1 Tegan Jovanka
By some way the easiest question in DWCE1, with around 85% of entrants going straight
for Torchwood. As I said in my introduction, this was the question which started me
wondering about Common Entries in the first place, and as such I may have not stopped
to think enough about how the question would be answered. Given that I only wanted one
question of the form "Name a [BLANK] other than [BLANK]", I would probably have done
better giving you free reign over Doctors, but excluding Torchwood from the ranks of
spin-offs. Even given Sarah Jane's very strong showing in the companion question, the
Sarah Jane Adventures could only muster four votes, and nobody at all cited non-TV
media such as the Virgin books or the Big Finish audios.
Not only was this the question with the highest-scoring best answer, it was also the
question with the fewest number of different answers submitted. In fact if you
subtract the all-Tegan and the probably-rare-entries answer slates then you are left
with only three different answers, of which one was only given twice.
4. Describe a way in which the 2005- series is different from the Classic Series
6 One episode stories
5 45 minute episodes
5 Better special effects
4 Longer episodes
3 Bigger budget
3 Design of console room / New TARDIS interior
3 Faster pace
3 More emotions
2 RTD is Exec Producer
2 One episode 45 min stories
1 50 minute episodes
1 60 minute Christmas Specials
1 Bigger TARDIS
1 Cybermen from an alternate universe
1 Design of TARDIS
1 Different Doctors
1 Different logo
1 Doctor's love interest
1 Focus on companion's domestic life
1 Gay Agenda
1 Made by BBC Wales
1 More kissing
1 More sexuality
1 New title sequence
1 Next week trailers
1 No time lords
1 Shorter episodes
1 Tegan Jovanka
This was the first question in which I had to consider whether two answers were
equivalent or not (for question 1 it doesn't matter if you put "Peri", "Peri Brown",
"Perpugilliam Brown" or any other such variation since the question asks you to name a
companion and these answers all name the same companion). Many entrants cited the longer
length of the new series episodes or its propensity to tell one episode stories.
So, all the people who said rather general things like "Length of the episodes" or
"Longer episodes as the standard length" are deemed to have answered "Longer episodes".
People who cited the new length, either directly "45 minute episodes" or indirectly
"episodes are 20 minutes longer" are deemed to have answered "45 minute episodes" which
is a more specific version of "Length of the episodes" and thus is marked as a separate
answer. The people who (incorrectly) cited "50 minute episodes" or "shorter episodes"
also have those answers marked separately.
Similarly all the people who referred to one episode stories are deemed to have given
the same answer, except those people who more specifically referred to episodes being
both self-contained stories and 45 minutes long who are deemed to have given a separate
answer.
A few people referred to the new design of the TARDIS interior as bigger or better, and
I have (generously) marked these as equivalent, however the answer "bigger TARDIS" could
equally well refer to the console room set or the police box prop, so as a less specific
variant, this has been marked as a separate answer. The same goes for "design of TARDIS"
(a less specific variant itself of "bigger TARDIS").
In amongst all of these variations, "better special effects" also emerged as one of the
top answers, but each only garnered around 10% of the vote. This was one of the harder
questions, with 18 one-point answers.
5. Name a Doctor Who story
26 Genesis of the Daleks
8 The Talons of Weng-Chiang
3 An Unearthly Child
3 City of Death
3 The Caves of Androzani
3 The Next Doctor
2 Blink
1 Pyramids of Mars
1 Rose
1 Tegan Jovanka
1 The Daleks
1 The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances
1 The Invasion
When (briefly) considering what my answers would be, just before posting the questions, I
put An Unearthly Child down as the answer to this question. With over 200 stories to
choose from, you need a good reason for singling out just one, so it was clear to me that
the first-ever story would be one of the most popular. I expected it to romp home, with
fan favourites such as Talons and Androzani also doing well, and probably a few showings
for Rose and The Next Doctor too.
I never considered that Genesis of the Daleks would be the top answer, nor that a
consensus would form so easily. Around half the field went for Genesis which garnered
over three times as many mentions as its nearest rival, The Talons of Weng-Chiang. My
top pick was given only three times.
It's possible I may be out-of-step with fandom slightly as I've always thought Genesis
was a little overrated. True, the best of Genesis is as good as the very best Doctor Who
has to offer, but the fact that it works so well (much better in fact) as two 45 minute
episodes clearly demonstrates how much rather dull padding there is in the six episode
version. Wikipedia tells me that it is the most repeated story (on British terrestrial
TV) and I believe it was the best-selling DVD, and these may have influenced entrants'
decision-making too.
6. Name a Doctor Who writer
28 Robert Holmes
14 Russell T Davies
7 Terrance Dicks
2 Steven Moffat
1 Douglas Adams
1 Glyn Jones
1 Tegan Jovanka
Here, my thoughts were rather more in step with fandom as a whole. I fully expected
Robert Holmes to be the top answer, and equally expected Rusty to take second place.
However, my pick for third place is nowhere to be seen, which is particularly startling
given not only his importance to Doctor Who lore as a whole, but also the fact that he
wrote - or at least is the credited writer on - the story that almost half the field
picked for the previous question. Yet when asked to name a Doctor Who writer, nobody
picked Terry Nation, which I find rather puzzling. It's true, nobody would pick Tel
on the basis of, say, The Chase or Planet of the Daleks, but without the original Dalek
serial, it's no exaggeration to say that we wouldn't be sitting down to watch Planet of
the Dead in a few weeks' time. Maybe entrants give then script-editor Robert Holmes
credit for all the best stuff in Genesis (possible, but hard to prove) but it is odd
that Nation never got mentioned at all - even by the entrant who gave The Daleks as
their answer to q5!
In fact, looking through the answer slates, I see that of the 28 people who gave
Robert Holmes as an answer to this question, 11 gave a Robert Holmes story as the
answer to the previous question, with eight citing Talons, two citing Caves and one -
rather eccentrically - citing Pyramids of Mars. Despite handily coming second for this
question, here only two RTD stories were given in answer to question 5 - The Next
Doctor three times and Rose once (all three entrants gave RTD as their answer here).
Only two other new series stories were given, both by Steven Moffat, and they garnered
just three votes between them. Of those three entrants, two named Moffat in answer to
this question. No-one else answered this question with the name of the person who wrote
the story which they gave in answer to the previous question.
7. Name a Doctor Who director
40 Graeme Harper
4 David Maloney
3 Christopher Barry
2 Douglas Camfield
1 Alan Bromly
1 Barry Letts
1 Chris Clough
1 Tegan Jovanka
1 Waris Hussein
Time for another easy one. Although Douglas Camfield, David Maloney and Christopher
Barry are all fondly remembered as among Doctor Who's better directors of the seventies
(no Derek Martinus?), it was the astonishing fluidity and power of Graeme Harper's two
eighties stories which made Who fans really sit up and take notice of who got the
director credit. Harper is also the only director to have returned to work on the new
series.
Regarding the patterns in the previous two questions, it's also interesting to note
here that the director of the most popular story only gets named four times - so
whatever people like about Genesis it apparently isn't either the script or the
direction - and of the 40 people who named Graeme Harper, only two also named one of
his stories for question 5.
Two answers I find somewhat baffling (neither of them part of the possibly-rare-entries,
3-point-scoring answer slate) are Chris Clough and Barry Letts. Clough, as far as
I can tell, is a journeyman late-eighties director, who worked on quite a few stories,
often with a bit of style (Ace's slingshot attack on the Cybermen is a stupid idea, but
at least it has some pace and energy) but equally often doing no more than pointing the
camera in the general direction of whoever is speaking, and blasting the whole thing
with light, as was the norm. Why anyone should think his would be the first name on
everyone else's lips is beyond me. And Letts - far better known as one of Who's more
thoughtful and committed producers, although his first association with the show was
as director - would be a good answer to this question in a rare entries contest, but
again I can't understand why anyone would think that his name would be given by many
other entrants too.
Waris Hussein is a clever answer, which proved too clever for this crowd!
8. What would you watch on TV if Doctor Who was not on?
9 Nothing
5 Torchwood
4 Battlestar Galactica
4 Doctor Who DVDs
3 Blake's 7
2 Coronation Street
2 Heroes
2 Lost
2 Star Trek
2 Whatever was on / Anything
1 A Doctor Who spin-off
1 Buck Rogers
1 Buffy the Vampire Slayer
1 EastEnders
1 Family Guy
1 Firefly
1 It isn't
1 Life on Mars
1 Other BBCtv transmissions
1 Porn
1 Red Dwarf
1 Soap operas
1 Spooks
1 Stargate
1 Tegan Jovanka
1 The Mighty Boosh
1 The Prisoner
1 The Simpsons
1 Top Gear
The "right" answer here was "Star Trek", although I soon realised that "nothing"
was a much better answer. I also liked "Doctor Who DVDs". The two entrants who replied
with "anything" and "whatever was on" I deemed to have given equivalent answers. "Other
BBCtv transmissions" is - at best - a more specific variant of this and so has been
marked as a separate answer.
People who submitted "Buck Rogers" or "Coronation Street" I imagine were bitterly
remembering the ratings wars of the early and late eighties, respectively. I was
there, brother, I feel your pain.
Insofar as this is also a poll of people's viewing habits and a popularity contest
among rival sci-fi shows, I was pleased to see Battlestar Galactica doing so well.
The current crop of episodes have been awesome and I shall miss it when - in a few
weeks! - it's all over.
This was another hard question, but although it had more one point answers than
question 4 (19 here, 18 there), it also had a higher-scoring best answer (9 here,
6 there). This was very important to, say, Vegetables!
9. Name something Doctor Who fans argue about
14 Canon
11 UNIT dating
3 JNT (= the JNT era)
3 Old series vs new series
3 RTD (= RTD's writing)
2 Continuity
2 Favourite Doctor
2 Is the Doctor half human
2 RTD's gay agenda
1 Big Finish is canon
1 Doctor Who
1 Favourite monster
1 First Doctor's regeneration/rejuvenation
1 How many stories
1 Is he called Doctor Who
1 Quality of writing
1 Questions set by Tom Salinsky
1 Tegan Jovanka
1 Who are the Morbius faces
1 Who the official doctors
And finally, the two answers I had in mind here were "UNIT dating" and the self-
referential "Internet quizzes". The first did well, ending up as the second-best
answer, but the other appeared only as the even more specific "Questions set by Tom
Salinsky" (ta for the name-check). The best answer, by a small margin, turned out to be
"canon" with most entrants who gave that answer giving it in exactly that form.
A small issue of equivalent answers came up with JNT and RTD. I had no problem marking
"JNT" and "The JNT era" as equivalent, and eventually decided to mark "RTD" and "RTD's
writing" as equivalent - since what other aspects of Russell T Davies do fans argue
about? His glasses? However, "RTD's gay agenda", even if expressed only through his
writing (and that's assuming it exists of course), is a more specific variant and so
has been marked as a separate answer.
"Continuity" I regard as being a separate, albeit overlapping, concept than "Canon",
so these answers are not equivalent.
That wraps it up for DWCE1. I have another set of questions almost ready to go for
DWCE2, then I shall hand over to Chris Kelk who I gather wants to run a rare entries
contest of his own (good luck, mate) and then we'll see where we stand. Any comments
on the relative virtues of rare and common entries contest are very welcome.
NB: to anticipate the possible request, no it is not possible to give a rare entries
scoretable for this set of answers, except by exactly inverting the common entries
scoretable (which entrants are free to do in their own minds). Turning a rare entries
scoretable into a common entries scoretable is a subtractive process, disregarding
wrong answers and more specific variants. To reverse the process means adding
information - I would have to plough through all the answer-slates again, marking
questions as wrong or more specific variants and I'm not going to do that. I will
just point out in passing, though, that whereas Ed Rackstraw, who came joint last
with three points, would likely take those three points to the top of a putative
Rare Entries score board - Ishbosheth Pfingst, who tied him at the bottom of the
scoreboard, would find all but one of his Tegan Jovankas marked wrong and so would
also come dead last in the Rare Entries version.
Cheers
Tom